It Could Happen Here - How Transphobia at a YMCA Took Over a Town

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

The past month the town of Port Townsend has become a nexus point in the war on Trans people. This episode we explain how, and what the community's response has been. https://www.gofundme.com/f/srsforclemSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech

brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit.

The podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audio books while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Warning for some pretty intense transphobia and misgendering. 80-year-old Julie Jumon was permanently banned from her local YMCA after demanding that a transgender worker leave the women's locker room. Jumon said that she was trying to protect little girls from a biological man in a women's

swimsuit who was watching them undress. So this week a few dozen people joined Jumaane to protest the YMCA. Some of the protesters, including her, were assaulted by lunatics, men dressed as women. Okay, first of all, that granny rocks. But when pressed, Port Townsend, Washington police said that Mr. Mrs. Jumaane had an emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit. Well I should hope the response to that would be emotional. Yeah because this you know you can just picture this kind of situation where they're grooming little kids completely inappropriately and you're you're you're

doing the thing that a lot of people want you to do and that a lot of people watching would. But I hope everybody is aware that this, from what I understand, is a pretty wonderful profit for big pharma and medical systems. And what's happening to children becomes even more disastrous. And you were protecting the kids. You were protecting the kids. I mean, they should have a responsibility to do that. The Young Men's Christians Association should be doing that themselves if they are playing any role in this whatsoever.

It's pretty frightening. This is It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison, and today we're talking about a recent flare-up of anti-trans hate and the anti-trans protests and campaigning that's engulfed a small town in northern Washington in what conservatives describe as the culture war front. The past month, far-right media personalities and anti-trans so-called feminists have partnered together to create an international nexus point for the increasing attacks on trans and queer people, resulting in a wave of harassment, death threats, and rallies, including an upcoming anti-trans rally in association with the Proud Boys and Three Percenters, slated for Saturday, September 3rd. Port Townsend is a small city of just around 10,000 people, located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, just north of Seattle. The city has a geographic footprint of just under 10 square miles. Over the course of the past month, the quaint beachside city has become the focus of a disinformation campaign against trans people and transgender inclusivity. probably haven't heard anything about this story, let alone are aware of the massive amount of harassment and death threats being targeted at trans people and their allies. Anti-trans and

far-right activists have already descended on this small city from all around the country, and plan to do so again on September 3rd, with Proud Boys and 3 Percenters promising to show up. 3rd, with Proud Boys and 3 Percenters promising to show up. So what actually happened that escalated things to this point? On July 26th, an 80-year-old woman named Julie Jammin was in a pool locker room and began verbally harassing a trans woman who was on the job as an employee of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA. Julie Jammin asked invasive questions about her genitals and later accused her of engaging in inappropriate conduct, while continuously misgendering this employee. Both the employee and YMCA officials, and like everyone else present in the locker room, have disputed Julie's highly publicized version of events, which we'll get into in a bit. But first, we're going to hear from the original target of the harassment.

A few days ago, I was able to talk with Clementine, a young trans woman, about what happened to her near the end of July while working at the YMCA. It was a pretty normal day. That week we were doing swimming with the kids. And me and the other childcare workers, you know, use the locker rooms kind of as expected and i was using uh the woman's locker room just because you know that works for me um and that lines up with how i feel we went through all that no problems we got the kit the kids got changed in their stalls and then once we were out in the pool one of the kids needed to use the locker room bathroom. So I took that kid and another kid into the locker room in accordance with the Y's rule of three system. To clarify, at the YMCA, there is a quote rule of three where staff always accompany children in a group of three so that a staff person is never

alone with a child and children are never alone with each other as clementine was standing with a kid outside the restroom stall waiting on the other kid who was using the bathroom julie jamond was showering nearby in a curtained off stall across the locker room. I was waiting outside of the bathroom stall with the kid being the buddy, making small talk when Julie Jumon initiated the dialogue by asking if I was a member of the LGBTQ plus community. responded, yes, I'm trans. And she asked me if I had a penis. And it kind of caught me off guard. And I told her that, you know, that's none of your business. Julie asserted that I needed to leave and that I can't be there. And then in response to her assertion, I just shook my head.

No, um, I couldn't really leave or I'd be leaving the kids unattended. And, you know, I was backed into a corner. the kid at some point um the kid using the bathroom uh exited the stall and had her swimming uh her bathing suit like wasn't fully pulled up and she asked me for help and so i assisted her by pulling it up by its straps and you know there were other patrons present in the locker room at this time and at some point around the girl coming out and needing her straps pulled up uh julie was back in her uh shower stall and then around this time two more kids entered the locker room it might be good to mention uh i've prescribed glasses um i wasn't wearing my glasses and i couldn't see anything which was kind of terrifying because you know it was like a shot in the dark like i just heard a voice and and i had to search around

before i figured out who was talking to me but But anyways, the kids, two more kids came in to the locker room. And they overheard Julie shouting at me and asked me what was going on. And like, they had this concerned look on their face. And I just kind of told them to leave because I didn't want them to get involved. The kids went to the pool manager, Rowan, and asked for help with the escalating situation. They went straight to her and asked her to come help and told her that someone was yelling at me.

And moments later, Rowan entered, and as she walked by, I got her attention, and I told her, you know, there's an older lady yelling at me to leave right now and I pointed at the shower stall that Julie was using Rowan kind of like posted up and Rowan stood in between me the kids and Julie and waited for her to come out. And then Julie, you know, poked her head back out and said, get out, you're a man.

And Rowan, you know, intervened when she sort of like popped back out and said, no, actually you need to leave because right now you're discriminating and kind of being a bigot. So it's actually that you need, it's actually you that needs to leave right now you're discriminating and kind of being a bigot. So it's actually you that needs to leave right now. And Julie told Rowan she was confused about gender. And then Julie pointed at me and said, he has a fucking penis.

He has no business being around little girls. He has a penis and he could rape someone. being around little girls he has a penis and he could rape someone and after that rowan uh sort of ushered me and the girls out of the locker room and uh told me to go to her office and then the other staff members found me and helped me um and rowan stood outside the lobby side of the office when I was in there. And I guess like, yeah, after the police had been called, Julie came out and engaged with her and they were yelling. But I couldn't hear what was going on. And I mean, that's kind of the end of it. I know that Julie left after that, and I just kind of checked out for an hour or two. It shocked me.

I haven't had someone do that to me before. I've never been talked to in a bathroom or locker room before, especially in that way. The YMCA pool manager told Julie Jammon that she needed to leave and suspended her membership for violating the Y's code of conduct, which prohibits, quote, discrimination, hatred, derogatory or unwelcome comments, intimidation, conduct or actions based on an individual's sex, race, ethnicity, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status, unquote, as well as having no tolerance for disrespectful words or

gestures towards YMCA staff or others. Part of an official statement released by the Olympic Peninsula YMCA, published as the incident in question was growing into a much broader anti-trans spectacle, clarified that Julie has had, quote, several incidents where she has repeatedly violated the Y's code of conduct, specifically using disrespectful words or gestures towards YMCA staff or others, and abusive, harassing, and or obscene language or gestures towards YMCA staff or others. The aquatics manager then informed the patron that she was permanently suspended from Mountain View Pool and all Olympic Peninsula YMCA facilities, unquote. After Julie was banned from the pool on Monday, August 1st,

she started showing up outside the facility with anti-trans signs and led a small group of people into a city council meeting, resulting in an hour of public comment logged about the incident. Here is some of the statement Julie read in the city council meeting, which also gives a look at her version of events at this time. Approach the podium, state your name and where you live for the record. I'm Liz Long, I'm from the Quimper Peninsula, and I'm here because I had an experience that you need to know. I have sent it to you all in detail. In an effort by the city and the YMCA to apply the neocultural gender rules at Mountain View Pool dressing shower room facilities, women and children are being put at risk. My experience while showering after my swim was hearing a man's voice in the women's dressing area and seeing a man in a women's swimsuit watching little girls pull down their bathing suits in order to use the toilets in the dressing room. I reacted by telling him

to leave and the consequence is that I have been banned from the pool. There is no signage informing women the shower room is now all gender and what that means. Nor have parents been informed of what they can expect with these news policies the Y has not provided any dressing showroom options for women who do not want to be exposed to men who identify as women the YMCA the city the police and sheriffs the parents the professionals who assist victims of voyeurism, peeping toms, pedophilia, and assault need to come together to figure

out how to make the new policies work for all pool patrons, not just one group. How to keep children who are less able to discriminate safe. It is ironic that women who discriminate when a situation threatens their safety or their children, a message from our ancestors, are now accused of discrimination as if they have made someone else a victim. We need to do much more intelligent and wise about applying the rules and developing policies that are respectful and inclusive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So just a few notes about that. Trans inclusivity at the Y is not some new policy. For years, it's been literally

Washington state law that people have the right to access the locker rooms, changing rooms, and bathrooms that align with their gender identity. This has been the case since 2016. The law states, quote, entities shall allow individuals to use the gender-segregated facilities such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, and homeless or emergency shelters that are consistent with that individual's gender expression or gender identity, unquote. And regarding Julie's account of the incident, there have been no complaints from children or parents who are using the pool, and multiple accounts conflict with Julie's telling of the story, as the employee never did help anyone undress nor was watching anyone change. Throughout the city council meeting,

there were several public comments in support of trans rights that pushed back on Julie's outrageous claims and called out the overall trend of misgendering and the groomer-style transphobia. At the end of the meeting, city officials themselves took a stand against the transphobic rhetoric that was present throughout the hour of public comments. Oddly enough for this show, one of the people I interviewed for this episode serves as a Port Townsend City Councilwoman. Right. My name's Libby Wenstrom. I'm an elected city councillor for the city of Port Townsend.

And I'm speaking today as myself rather than as a representative of the city or a representative of the city or a representative of the city council as a whole. When did you first kind of hear about this thing that's now ballooned into this larger issue with people coming in from out of state to do protests and all this kind of stuff? I think I first heard about it on Sunday night, which would have been, I guess, the 31st of July. And I heard about it from the YMCA aquatics director, Rowan Matkins. And it was more in the tone of kind of a heads up that this was a thing that was going on. And then I heard a lot more about it the next day, which was Monday,

the 1st of August, when Julie Jumon showed up at the pool with a whole group of people doing a protest that they were picketing at the pool. And she also submitted a public comment to the city council meeting that night. And at that point, I realized that a group of people, including Julie, was probably going to plan on attending the city council meeting and reached out to some friends and acquaintances in the trans and allies community, Olympic Pride, the social justice group, and at the Unitarian Church here in town and various other people who had been kind of resourced and say, hey, this is going on. You need to be aware of it.

And in fact, that night, there was over an hour of public comment. There wasn't anything on this council agenda. There wasn't anything we were discussing. It wasn't really a matter. It wasn't really, I think, even on the city's radar. But 30-ish people showed up at the city council meeting. And normally, when there's a public comment about an item that's not on the agenda, they cut off public comment at half an hour, but for whatever reason, let it run that night. So it was well over an hour of public comment.

And some of the things said were pretty shocking. And to the tune of that all transgender people were pedophiles or that, you know, this was a rape happening. Some statements that were just not true. And then based on what I heard that night, I was really concerned and felt that this was both, you know, this was ballooning out of proportion, which now seems kind of funny given how much more balloon it's out of proportion it's gotten. There's not really any action here for the city or for the pool. I mean, one of the things that Julie Jumon has retained legal counsel and sent a demand letter to the city, but her demands were like, well, you should fire people. Well, they don't work for the city. They're YMCA employees. Well, you should change your policy.

Well, the policy is literally state law. And, you know, a bunch of things that just, you can't do this. So it's not really clear why this is all focusing on the city, because the city doesn't really have, there's not really any action that the city could take here. On top of the dozens of people Julie led in giving public testimony, which largely consisted of transphobia, misgendering, and baseless accusations that trans people are pedophilic inherently. But that same day, August 1st, she also led a protest outside of the YMCA. To learn more about this, I talked with Cass and Raven, who are both part of a local affinity group.

The first protest was August 1st, and they announced that they'd be back the same time on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So the 2nd drew a much larger counter-protest, and then a lot of the same people who were there on the second came back the third and fourth, but there was nobody to counter-protest against because the protesters gave up and went home after one day when they saw the kind of backlash they were facing. And most people, I think, thought that was the end of it. But people who do this kind of thing more often realize that this was more likely the vibe of the beginning stages of something bigger. A lot of red flags went off when we found out they were protesting at a city council meeting. Yeah. Planning to come back the following week.

Oh, that's right. That was the other thing was the council meeting on the first where there was a lot of public comment logged. It seemed to us like this was going to escalate further. But other people tended to feel that it was going to be a quick, you know, one and done type thing with how fast the news cycle picks up a new issue. And I think it was probably about a week later on the council meeting on the 8th, because by that point we knew about the planned turf action on the 15th. That's when it started to click for a lot of people that this was going to become a bigger thing. But I don't think anybody, including us, thought it was going to become an ongoing issue.

When I searched Port Townsend on Twitter and saw trending hashtags on a wall of anti-trans rhetoric, a lot of red flags went off. lot of red flags went off. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology, I just hate the people in charge and want

them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again. you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. This is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes.

You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation.

Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Since the city council public comments, the YMCA had started receiving threatening phone calls, and Jammin had been returning to facility nearly daily with some friends to protest, approaching everybody coming in and out of the pool and talking about how men are allowed in the locker room and bearing signs that misgendered the employee. said they were going to be picketing every day at the pool that week, that they showed up and there were about a hundred counter, counter purchasers isn't even really the right word. People that were, there was sort of like a little pride parade there. And Olympic Pride had a kind

of a booth table set up and we're handing out pride flags. And the social justice group from the QUF had a, you know, standing on the side of love banner and there were kids blowing bubbles and it was just, it was much more of a just kind of lot of people here. As these initial picket style protests were happening in front of the Y, the head of the Jefferson County Transgender Support Group called some friends and assembled this sort of counter protest to voice their support for the trans employee and assembled this sort of counter-protest to voice their support for the trans employee and the YMCA, which resulted in this gay-ass trans rights party massively overshadowing Julie Jammin and her friends' little protest. As she was getting

outnumbered in person, Julie took to alternative tactics by getting in touch with media outlets that'll give her a soapbox, resulting in a new wave of harassment targeted at the Y. There were about 100 people, and it was, I think it was Julie and one or two other people, and people had some conversations with Julie, and it sort of seemed like that was going to be the end of it. And the next day the pool was closed and about 50 trans rights supporters showed up and nobody showed up to pick it. And the pool was closed because pool employees were receiving death threats and just so much harassment. They basically couldn't use their phones because the phone lines were jammed and voicemails were filling up in 15 minutes, things like that. And then the pool ended up staying closed, I think, from the third, which was a Wednesday, all the way through that week and the following week. And it was just kind of a safety issue of not wanting to have children present for day camps and patrons there if they were going to

be harassed. Right after, I think probably on Monday the 1st of August, Julie reached out to, there's a local sort of far-right blog site called the Port Townsend Free Press that isn't really a newspaper or a news source at all. It's kind of this one guy, James Garantino's blog. And she reached out to that and he did an article. That first Port Townsend Free Press quote unquote article came out August 2nd and served as a mouthpiece for Julie's inflammatory version of events, coupled with some conservative transphobia. More reputable news outlets and local press didn't really cover the story until it had already turned into a viral topic on the right, which means there was over a week where the only documented write-up of the incident

was the Port Townsend Free Press blog post. Two days after that piece was published, Andy Nose, the Post Millennial, posted an article largely pulling directly from the Port Townsend Free Press write-up, and that was just the start. The next day, August 5th, Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire did an article about Julie Jamond and the danger of men watching little girls undress in the locker room. Later that night, the story was on Laura Ingram's Fox News show, citing reporting from the Post Millennial, which of course cited their reporting from the Port Townsend Free Press. And across the country in Washington state,

we found perhaps the most maddening story of the week. An 80-year-old grandmother was banned there from her YMCA after demanding that a biological male leave the woman's locker room where little girls were undressing. They then went to play clips of Julie's public comment at the city council meeting, amplifying Julie's ever-changing altered version of events now on the national stage. I think the mainstream actual, you know, real local newspapers didn't pick it up until the 7th or the 10th, respectively, for the Peninsula Daily News and The Leader. And that gap, when they amplified it out to the larger right-wing press, this got picked up by Breitbart, it got picked up by the Daily Mail, they kept quoting that original Portens of Free Press article, which was very inaccurate in terms of what it described as having happened. And, I mean, it was both outright wrong and it also left a bunch of things out, like that the transgender person was a YMCA employee, for instance, or that they were in the

locker room because they were supervising children. And I think where it really hit a crescendo on Thursday, the 19th, no earlier, whatever, not Thursday this past week, but the previous Thursday, know earlier, whatever, not Thursday this past week, but the previous Thursday, it was on Tucker Carlson. And that's where I really saw the email volume explode for people from outside the area, where it was like, you know, you're getting 30 emails in five minutes. And they're from, you know, they're from Texas, they're from Tennessee, they're from New Jersey, they're from Australia, they're from the UK, etc. That when it got picked up by Fox News, the reach really got broad. The first time the story was covered on Tucker Carlson Tonight took place on August 11th, in an episode guest hosted by Brian Klamid.

YMCA has changed a lot over the years. Now women and young girls at the Y are finding themselves in lock rooms and showers with men who identify as women, but they still have all their genitalia with them. And if you complain to the YMCA about their genitalia and what they're dressed like, you might get yourself banned. It's what exactly happened to an 80-year-old woman in Washington state. Here to explain, but not actually make excuses for, but explain, is our West Coast correspondent, Seattle radio host Jason Rance. Jason,

set the scene. Yeah, so I mean, here's the scene. Democrats used to stand up for women, but now they can't even define one. And as a result, you have 80 year old Julie Jamon, who said she was banned from a pool and locker room facility that was managed by the Olympic Peninsula YMCA on Port Townsend, Washington. Now she says she was headed into the locker room to shower and she saw something pretty alarming. She explained what happened at this council meeting. Then a clip from the public comments plays, and I will not subject you to that again, but here is a little bit more of that clip. So a number of residents showed up to support her at this council meeting, but the mayor, his name is David Faber, he was not pleased accusing them of transphobia.

Townsend is a welcoming community, and hate and discrimination has no place in this community. I listen to you quietly. I'd like you to listen to me quietly now. Given the rise in harassment and bigotry the trans persons have experienced recently it's essential that we all speak up the cisgendered people like me speak up in support of our trans community now jaman says the staff accused her of being discriminatory the ymca put out a statement basically saying we're not going to tolerate the bias, discrimination or hatred. And of course, in Washington state, the law allows anyone to use a locker room, changing room or bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. So they're basically saying we're doing what we have to do, except, of course, protect women who don't want to see this. Unbelievable. That guy should be ashamed of himself behind the mask.

that guy should be ashamed of himself behind the mask. In the immediate aftermath of this, did you see it ballooning to this scale? Or did you think this was just like a one and done traumatic incident? Absolutely not. I really just thought, you know, oh, my day's come. I finally had the bad bathroom experience. And I know a lot of people do have that bad experience. Nobody is ready for it to be, you know,

to have this much attention called to just such a small thing. No, I wasn't ready for it to be like this because yeah it's escalated to the point where you're like on international news for these like right wing grifters who are trying to basically get trans people killed yeah and you're

I don't know it's really upsetting to have my face and name you know sort of be pushed out like that. And it's crazy how that feeling, the sinking feeling when I saw my name and face, I don't even think it was my face at the time, when I saw my name appear on that local PT Free Press article. And, you know, at the time it was still a pretty big impact. And then to have that just keep happening and it gets like kind of depressingly numbing. Yeah. Just have it keep intensifying. yeah just have it keep intensifying i mean yeah i've been on hormones for almost a year now and i've avoided that for kind of reasons like this that it sucks because i just feel like i i feel like this is a very common experience with trans people who are like starting out like you just can't really go anywhere because you look too weird to go in the men's room and you're not

quite like you don't feel comfortable the women's room and you're not quite like you don't feel comfortable the women's room because of stuff like this and you know if you're non-binary that is just a whole other issue of like where the fuck do i go like there's there's there's not a lot of options sometimes but then to have something that's already very stressful we turned into like a fucking like daily wire new y post info wars. Shit is like, like what? Like, like it's,

I mean like Tucker Carlson, like all of it. It's really, it's disappointing that there's this idea that I, you know, I'm, I'm actively trying to violate people's space. And it's really frustrating because of how uncomfortable I feel putting myself

in that position, being in that room. And I don't want to have something like this happen. And I don't, you know, I don't abuse that space because i'm not some guy trying to prey on people i'm i'm just trying to use the bathroom and get changed and and like do you talk about like oh you know walking in penis hanging out and and all of these things but i don't change in the public space. I go into a changing room and I understand that confusion and I try to subtract myself from the space as much as

possible and make it more comfortable. When I'm in a position like that where I'm trying to sort of entertain a kid who's not happy to be a bathroom buddy. And I'm kind of put in that position where I have to talk. It's super vulnerable. And I just remember feeling small and I just shrunk when she talked to me like that. And I don't even, the space just got so small. Piggybacking off the groomer and growing anti-trans attacks we've seen this year, a large swath of right-wing influencers and media personalities jumped on this story to drive outrage and push their rhetoric. Here is a brief clip from Newsmax. They're more than willing to just ignore possible pedophilia happening at the YMCA in a locker room.

Well, from my point of view, it seems more like some sort of hypnotism. I know the word woke has been put to it, but I have to tell you that all public agencies i'm connected to uh as a citizen in a very small town they are all operating with this gender identity and you've got to wonder what is happening in those most private places that people particularly women need to have you know we've we've had you on we've had you on the show a couple times now, and you seem very level-headed. Yes, very, very level-headed indeed. By now, the story has been headlined in an obviously very mischaracterized and transphobic fashion, but still headlined by the Postmillennial, the Daily Wire, Fox News, Daily Mail, Breitbart, the Postmillennial, the Daily Wire, Fox News, Daily Mail, Breitbart, Newsmax, Infowars, New York Post,

The Federalist, and the quote-unquote feminist news site Redux. As false retellings about what happened in the Olympic Peninsula YMCA went viral on the right, threatening emails and phone calls started pouring into the YMCA, prompting them to shut down the entire facility for over a week, leaving many local families without child care services. Intense harassment and death threats were sent to city officials who voiced support of trans rights, and also to the pool manager. In my conversation with Libby Wenstrom from last week, she detailed some of the threats and the impact the harassment has had on the community. A lot more of the ire is now kind of directed

at the city and the mayor and just at the pool director and less at employees. The transgender employee who was, you know, attacked in the locker room by Julie Dumont is actually no longer with Y. Other people have left. There's another undisclosed location just out of concern of trying to get the kids

as far away from this whole process as possible and and so that took a little bit of time and juggling to set up and they were so short staffed they were actually calling for volunteers in order to try to keep the child care open this week just because um they were already somewhat short-staffed and with people leaving it had just been even harder um the Y has been open I think all week this week I think it was open Monday Tuesday today's Wednesday um so it has been able to reopen they they've changed the schedule around it's now not open Saturdays again um and shuffled in I think some staff are working seven days a week in order to try to keep it open.

People are still getting threats. I got a terrible email last night. I haven't been getting death threats. I've been getting things like, you're a disgusting fat pig bitch. Why don't you go back to the buffet? And things like that. It hasn't hasn't for me been death threats um the pool director was receiving photographs of her children saying they're next and um some pretty explicit threatening messages like i'm coming for you i know where you are um And Mayor Faber has been getting similar

things. He got one where somebody was threatening to come to his home and rape his wife. So these have been pretty horrifying messages. For the most part, most of the email has, and the voicemails, have been coming from out of the area. You know, they're not local. So it's a little hard to gauge whether these are serious threats, but some of you feel like you have to take it somewhat seriously. And that, I think, has been pretty disruptive, both for the Y employees and for the city. As Julie's retelling of the story was going viral across right-wing and turf media, resulting in the pool having to temporarily shut down, a so-called press conference was scheduled outside of another city council meeting for August 15th

by Julie and her allies. There's a local, um, she bills herself as a sort of radical feminist named Amy Sousa, who has a sort of anti-trans blog site. And she has really taken this and run with it. Sorry, I plugged in, but not well. She's really taken this and run with it and has, I think, has been really this kind of driving force behind a lot of this amplification onto far-right media. And Amy Souza held a, what she billed as a press conference on the August 15th, the night of the most recent city council meeting, and showed up with a group of, I don't know, probably 25 or 30 supporters. meeting and showed up with a group of, I don't know, probably 25 or 30 supporters. And there were estimates are between 350 and 400 trans rights folks from town. I mean, there were local who had just showed up and most of them were waiting in line to go into the council meeting and, you know, flying flags and raising banner banners and stuff. But there was some heated shouting and one person got arrested for shoving.

There weren't any charges filed. I did confirm that with the sheriff's office, with the courts, that no charges got filed out of that, which is contrary to the story they've been putting out that there were assault charges filed. That's not true. I believe there were about 300 people that came out to confront less than 20 people coming to try and bring hate into our community. And it feels like that really inspired a lot of the different networks to get connected. Our personal little networks are incredibly white. Most of us are trans of some regard. And we were reached out to by a local

BIPOC community that we've had some crossover with, but not a lot. But since this happened, just the interconnectivity with that group has just exploded. After the press conference protest, footage of the event went viral, spawning another new wave of right-wing media outrage. Clips from the quote-unquote feminist Redux magazine Twitter account show Julie trying to give a speech while being drowned out by chants in support of trans people, and at one point someone running behind Julie to rip down a suffragette flag put up by one of the TERFs. And side note, in some much less viral footage, we can see TERFs trying to rip pride flags out of the hands of people who are counter-protesting.

So, eh. Conservative coverage of the protest painted a pearl-clutching picture of scary trans people assaulting women. A few days after the press conference, Julie Jamon herself made an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Julie Jamon is one of them. She's 80 years old. She's now been banned from stepping inside a YMCA. Why? Because she dared to object when a male employee was assigned to watch little girls remove their bathing suits in the bathroom in a women's locker room. So this week, a few dozen people joined Jumon to protest the YMCA. Some of the protesters, including her, were assaulted by

lunatics, men dressed as women. Here's some of the footage from that on Monday. You may have read some version of my personal experience, a naked old lady in the women's shower room, and what I saw that day. Women's rights are human rights! Are we going to get women out of here? Women's rights are human rights! Screaming at her. Julie Germain is the woman, the brave woman, just on that video.

She joins us tonight. Julie, thanks so much. We are grateful that you are joining us. Why, at this stage in your life, are you taking it upon yourself to speak up against this in the face of what we just saw? I was in the shower, and I saw that man in that women's suit and I saw him watching little girls.

You can't not act when you see that going on. You must do something. So I and bless you for doing that. That's exactly right. Your moral sense is just is clear. I have no idea what your background is, but you have a very clear sense of right and wrong. And I wish more people had it. So you tried to explain that in the video we just played, and rather than listen to you, people screamed at you and then appeared to come at you. Have you noticed there's no conversation about this? It was a mob of hundreds of people that came streaming into this permitted gathering, and they kettled us. I think that's what you'd call it. They pushed, shoved, they knocked women

to the ground. These are the men and the supporters of men that apparently the YMCA and the city want to allow into the women's dressing and shower area. I object. And you at the age of 80 were banned by the YMCA. It's hard even to believe this is real because you were taking a shower and there was a man in there and they banned you, not him. What could tell us if that's true? A and B, what YMCA is this? Yes, that's correct. I told that guy to get out of the shower and then a staff member came around the corner and I said to her, get him out of here. And she said, that's discrimination. You're out of here for life. And I'm calling the cops. Can you tell us what YMCA, where did this happen? This happens in Port Townsend that's on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It's just, it's, I hope they are punished for the way that they treated you.

And I appreciate your bravery and your forthrightness. I do too. We did try and get the police to come help us. They were standing across the street. Whoops. And they were told by a directive to stand down. They did not come to help us. I hope they rot. Julie Juman, thank you for all you've done. I appreciate it. Good to see you tonight. Throughout all the media spectacle, I feel like the actual original victim of this harassment has kind of been forgotten, despite them being the current face of the transgender menace. In my conversation with Clementine, we talked about what it's like

to be turned into this sort of outrage symbol. Like, I i watched the three hours of public testimony um a few nights ago which was i was on i was on so much caffeine um it's the only way is that the first is that the meeting that happened right after the incident or the monday from the 15th? Both. I did both in one night. Yeah. That's a lot of footage. Yeah. And one of the more shocking things was just how, how, how, how mis, one, how mischaracterized the incident was.

And two, just like how much blatant misgendering there was. And like talking about you not as like an actual person but as almost this like evil archetype in people's minds like it's so dehumanizing in a really bad way um let alone all of like the like misgendering stuff like it's it was it was wild watching this person after person completely mindlessly create this villain in their own heads and then just attach it onto an actual human being who's like, your privacy has actually been violated.

Your private information, your pictures, names, is going all over these neo-fascist news sites. And, like, with some things, you know, people are framing this as, like, you know, safety and privacy. And, like, if you want to look at what's actually going on, it's so different. And there's such a disconnect between watching all of that public testimony and looking at all of, you know, the, the right wing press of this incident. And I don't know, it's very depressive framing. It's really clear and disappointing when you're the subject of it,

because I know what happened in that space and, you know, there were people to witness what happened and we worked uh to get our reports out quickly but it just didn't you know it didn't matter because of how dedicated this woman was to getting her side or whatever i mean in reality, it just feels like she was dedicated to hurting. I don't know what her motivation was, but it's the blatantly false side of the story that really hurts

because accusations that I was standing there watching, I think they go anywhere from like two to five kids is their number. I was watching the Tucker Carlson and I think I saw that number five, watching five kids undress

when that's just not what happened. I was standing there with one kid who was fully clothed chatting while we waited for another kid to come out of the bathroom. And it's just wrong. It's misinformation. And it's not about,

you know, it's not even about pushing an agenda. It's, it's about people's livelihood and it's really damaging to have my privacy violated like that you know um straight up that's what it is it almost feels like you're just like this sacrificial archetype that they're boogeyman yeah it's like they're not even about they're not even like interested in you as a person, really. They're interested in you on this idea and to project you onto this whole other idea,

which is so fucked up because you're an actual person. Yeah, well, and you can see in the comments and stuff on some of these that it's pretty, you know, I won't try to dig into like the ugly, the ugly and the bad of Twitter, but like, I've seen people say that I'm like a fully bearded man or like, I'll be paralleled as a lumberjack. And it's like, or, I mean, and not that, you know, your appearances matter.

It's about how you feel, but it's kind of, you know, interesting to see how I'm painted in such a weird and twisted light. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me as the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment

with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week we'll explore

everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone

from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom.

At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Despite going viral in the right-wing and TERF news sphere, local sentiment in the Port Townsend area has been widely in support of trans rights and not very pleased that their town has been upended for over a month due to one woman's personal prejudice and discomfort. I've lived in Port Townsend for 24 and a half years.

And in talking to people over the last couple of weeks, I would say nearly universally, the local sentiment is, why is this such a big deal? Like, this is basically somebody got startled in a locker room, made kind of a jerk of herself, and is now trying to blow this into some kind of international incident. And, you know, here's this little tiny town at the edge of the continent. And we're like, why? Why is this the most important thing? You know, why did, you know, dozens of families not have childcare for 10 days? Why did, you know, the YMCA employees have to not get paid? Why did, you know, the impact of this

has been so outsized relative to what actually happened. The person who started the initial incident with the trans employee, it's kind of funny in a way that, yes, she's gotten out her message to the whole community, but it's spread as a result of the organizing against her and against the group of people that she's bringing into the area. And it's gotten to a point where just random community members that we don't have any direct connection to are recognizing her and knowing why she's a known person and are just kicking her out of their businesses on site. It's like the backlash against that incident is really spreading really well. And we're getting this really good organic network building throughout the community.

Earlier in August, before the big press conference thing, various BIPOC and queer collectives and affinity groups started networking. And a solidarity meeting was set up to figure out how to take care of each other as the far-right's spotlight on the town grows. Myself and one other person went, and maybe a couple others who I didn't know, but the two of us were the main ones who were more directly involved with the queer community side of responding to what was going on. And it was really great. Like they just were like, we want to support you. We want to, you know, help take care of you. What can we do? And then for the action on the 15th, when we were talking about, you know, like, here's, here's the kind of response that we're wanting from the whole community, but here's some of these background needs, because none of them were experienced enough with

protesting to feel comfortable going out on the front lines and doing stuff. They went about a quarter mile away and set up a community picnic. And I don't think people took nearly enough advantage of it because the planning happened so last minute but they did a great job of setting up in solidarity in solidarity and in support and we're really looking forward to working with them more we spent the last few years running small group basic medical classes and workshops and really making connections like within our community and having this come about and having everyone come up to one place and see each other and going oh we know you and I know you and from different communities coming together, we've really been able to enable those folks to come together to start building more of a unified front. I want to reiterate that with

all the media spectacle, it's important to not lose sight of the original target of all of this hate and transphobia. The physical and mental effect of such a massive wave of bigoted harassment and doxing can take a substantial toll. I had to stop going into work at a certain point because I couldn't do it. I woke up in the morning and I looked in the mirror and I just broke down because it was too much to keep going and to keep trying to bring that bright energy to work. And a lot of doubt is, that's what I've been experiencing is a lot of, you see so many people trying to divulge your character in a negative way and it's you know it's toxic and it can kind of seep through and make your life toxic and that's why i just had to stop looking because it hurt too much and it's putting me in this limbo i i don't feel like i've gotten a break for a month i feel

like i've just been tired and like it's like a purgatory rest i feel like i'm in purgatory you know has there been any kind of like support on the community level that has been helpful yeah yeah um i've been i've been definitely grateful and um blessed to have the community response be really astounding and supportive yeah uh i've been given the opportunity to be so much more connected with my local queer community as well as my local community period um there were a lot of supportive voices uh that made it a little bit easier to ignore the darker side of this um and elephant in the room uh the gofundme i don't know how i would feel if there wasn't, you know, something, uh, rigid and like a rock to lean on, like the GoFundMe to be able to have something helpful to look forward to and think that I can, you know, be me and that I can afford being me. Uh, I don't know how I would navigate the storm without something like that in the distance.

It's been overwhelming and I've just been waiting for it to end and it looks like it's finally slowing down, but the support makes it easier. And the support is a kind of attention that really helps right now because it's strikingly easy to feel bad, to feel just dissociated when your life is kind of thrust into a different lens and what felt like a day, what kind of was just a day or a week, this month has felt like longer than my entire summer break. The situation in Port Townsend is not over yet. In a bit, we'll talk about the upcoming anti-trans rally on September 3rd. And there is this kind of absurd irony that's not uncommon when digging into these types of issues, that the types of talking points common among reactionaries and all the complaints around violations of privacy just end up actually being enacted by the people who push these moral panics.

So things have just continued to kind of escalate and escalate. My understanding, and I wasn't there for this, is that yesterday, which was the 24th, Amy Souza, I'm not sure if Julie Jumon was there or not, because of course Julie Jumon's been banned from the pool, showed up at the pool with a film crew and was trying to push their way into the locker room when patrons were there using the locker room, trying to film inside the locker room and got asked to leave. So it's still continuing to escalate. One of the things that I've been noticing a lot, and it's something that for those of us who are more involved, this is kind of a you don't say moment.

Those of us who are more involved, this is kind of a you don't say moment. And it's the people who are coming in and making accusations and making attacks against the community are very much doing the exact thing that they're making accusations of. of. There was an issue the other day of the people who planned and hosted the protest at the council meeting going into the Y with a camera crew and demanding to film the locker rooms while people were using them. There's lots of accusations that have been thrown that we bust in people from Portland and in reality the main aggressors who were there on the 15th in their group did come from Vancouver area. Or were flown in from Texas. Or were flown in from Texas. Yeah. Like this was 300 people who live within 20 minutes of Port Townsend showed up because they care. showed up because they care. And they had to fly people from as far as Pennsylvania to host an hour-long press conference with 20 people. And so we're seeing that a lot recurring.

The person organizing this upcoming action also lives in Vancouver area and is inviting people from all over to come up and start fights here and try to get video of confrontations going. And everybody up here wants to just be left alone and live in peace, but they also want to show up. And they're kind of getting an opportunity to show up in the most low effort way. It's in your own town. You might as well show up. I remember a few weeks ago, there was this headline from a federalist think piece that went a bit viral for being a big yikes, almost mirroring the fascist framing of blood libel.

If you replace, quote, the transgenders with, quote, the Jews, you'll see what I mean. The headline reads, quote, the transgender movement is not just intolerant, it's barbaric and violent, and it's coming for your children, unquote. Almost exclusively, its sources are Twitter accounts like Libs of TikTok and a few random TERFs. And this is what we mean when we talk about how things that seem like they should just be insignificant Twitter bullshit actually do affect the world off of social media. This is how entire conversations on the validity of people's existence get formed and directed now. The last section of the Federalist story is about the Boston Children's Hospital. And if you listened to yesterday's episode of It Could Happen Here,

you can guess the kind of disinformation the article peddles. And many readers, many of whom are not on Twitter, will take whatever it says at face value. Same thing for Libs of TikTok stuff being boosted on Fox News. The majority of the Federalist think piece, though, is about Port Townsend and everything stemming out of the YMCA incident. And the whole article is as terrifying and fascistic as its headline i remember seeing the federalist article headline and just being like oh here's another another piece doing the same thing and i didn't realize it was about like this specific incident until much later and oh yeah it's the kind of it kind of does play into the idea that we know these things happen.

You just don't expect them to happen right where you are until it's going on. Yeah, I've spent years screaming at a wall, telling people that this is coming, and really hoped that all of my preparation had been for nothing, and it's happening in my hometown now. And getting national media attention, everything know Ben Shapiro to InfoWars to interviews on Tucker. Back during the Trump presidency we were pretty much just gun nerds and had started a small little gun club and we're inviting our friends and our local queer community out to learn about that.

And it went really quickly from that to people having more of an interest in the medical stuff we were teaching, specifically Stop the Bleed. And so after the Trump presidency was over, a lot of people dropped off and just the majority of the people that stuck around happened to be trans um but we continued offering uh these classes uh we were hosting ones out here about de-escalation about stop the bleed uh we're hosting naloxone stuff. I think with there being such limited options for direct actions in the area, a lot of people were kind of naturally tending towards how can we better support our friends who live in areas that are doing direct actions. And we started getting a lot more interest in those kinds of support roles, the medical training, the de-escalation, even things like emergency preparedness and food security. Yeah.

But because of that, we've just spent the last few years running these just a small group, like one to four people, basically workshops on all these different subjects, and built somewhat of a connection with the community and a bit of respect. So when this happened, we actually had that to draw on, and we could really help enable people to organize themselves and create some form of unity. So it's not small groups of people coming in without a plan, but a large group of people

showing up all at once um that we're not directly involved in any sort of leadership of it's just naturally organically happened um but have really spent the last uh few years just feeling like screaming at a wall um until this happened in our small town and completely unexpectedly. And now we're actually somewhat useful. Before we close out, we do need to talk about the upcoming anti-trans rally planned for the afternoon of Saturday, September 3rd at Pope Marine Park. Organizers are explicitly tied to the Proud Boys, and this rally is one of the most clear examples of how TERFs, self-described feminists, or people just looking out for biological women's rights, are perfectly willing to ally with fascists if it means hurting trans and queer people. The rally is billed as, quote,

a rally for decency. Stand up against men in women's public pool locker rooms and tell the city of Port Townsend to let Julie swim, unquote. Yeah, the guy who runs Common Sense Court Conservatives, a man named Robert, I always mess up his name, Zerfling, I think it is, Zerfinging z-e-r-f-i-n-g um who's associated in some way with the proud boys and is uh associated with roger stone he runs this blog called common sense conservative he is organizing something that's being billed as quote rally for decency unquote um to be here in Port Townsend on the Labor Day weekend Saturday, which is the third.

And it's unclear whether this is going to be a large event or a small one. They have not, as of yesterday, pulled a permit for that. And there's some questions about, you know know if you're planning a large event what what's that gonna unfold like uh port towns is a tourist community and at this time of year we've got a lot of people in town over labor day weekend um so a large proud boy rally is kind of you know it doesn't feel very comfortable is this kind of the first kind of big incident where you've had these types of like, you know, more kind of experienced activists on like the anti-trans side or on, you know, affiliated with Proud Boys or whatever kind of come in and try to make this problem inside the town? We've had little bits and pieces of stuff. The Proud Boys or something kind of connected had a kind of truck drive-through parade rally in 2020, sort of just prior to the election.

They kind of drove through town and, you know, with a bunch of big trucks. And I think some people were open carrying. And it was mostly a bunch of noise. But it hasn't. This is a very liberal community. And it hasn't really hit us. This is also just for context, this is a town of 10,000 people. And it's the biggest town for, you know, 50 miles in any direction. So it's not, you know, it isn't like 10,000 people, that's a suburb. This is the big

town. This is the county seat. So it's, we've been kind of insulated from a lot of things you know we had you know we definitely had some black lives matter protests we definitely had you know we we had a big women's march in 2017 and 2018 but we haven't seen the kind of explosive clashing protests that you know seattle or portland have the far right is planning to mobilize people from around the Pacific Northwest, pulling from folks in Oregon and Idaho, and are expecting anywhere between 50 to 100 people to show up on the anti-trans side, especially people from Proud Boy and three percenter affiliated networks. One of the leaders of the Washington State Three Percenter Militia, Eric Rode, has stated that he will be present and is encouraging his followers to join him,

saying on Telegram, quote, I don't care if five of you show up or 50 of you show up. I will always march against men staring at girls as young as 11 pulling off their swim trunks. It would be pretty He then goes on to do something else. but I never fail to answer the call to something so simple as don't stare at little girls when they take off their clothes, unquote. He then goes on to do some unhinged rambling about federal observation and his commitment to God and country, but he ends that post by saying, quote, when I get threatened by Antifa, I'll match to Antifa, unquote, which I don't even know what that means. The grammar on that is very confusing. Another telegram post from a 3%er account reads, quote, calling all patriots, all proud boys, all 3%ers, all lone wolves. We roll out to Port Townsend on September 3rd. Hope to see you there. We got proud boys and 3%ers crew is also planning a pre- and post-rally barbecue party on Friday and Saturday night at Whidbey Island,

which sounds like an awful time. That sounds like a horrible party. Our major concerns going forward is if protesters keep coming out here, that the right wing will get more footage that they can spin, bringing more attention on this, bringing more harm to the trans community across the country, that the right wing will attack someone locally around here, or that all of this spun footage will inspire someone from outside of the area or someone just sitting in the woods who will come and cause serious harm to a large group

of our local trans community. And our intent is to be there to have some sort of response, be it medical or otherwise. Trying to think of how to say this. I've lived here on and off most of my life and had started working towards transitioning, but due to the national political situation, specifically when the former president temporarily got rid of trans protections in medical, canceled all that, changed my medical records back, and have been presenting as a cis white dude since then, specifically because of the amount of privilege that gives me.

And having a trans partner who is working on their transition in this town while this is happening is hitting home to a level that I was completely unprepared for and the emotional impact that all of this has been having on me and the fact that it's not just here but that this is getting national attention is something I'm still trying to wrap my head around. And I'm just really thankful for all of the networks that we've built and all of the community, the local community, the broader Washington community, all the people who have just shown so much support for us. And it makes me feel like there is a future where we can just be left in peace. And that is the story of what's been happening in Port Townsend over the

course of the past month, and what could happen in the next few days. I'm going to close this episode with Clementine discussing the details of her GoFundMe. The GoFundMe is sort of a general transition fund for me. I originally made it specifically for two surgeries. I lowballed the amount greatly because I felt like if I asked for too much, I wouldn't get anything. And I still got nothing for a long time. At some point when the articles were coming out, one of the national articles used my GoFundMe as a source to find out more about me. But that got my GoFundMe out there. And a lot of different people started picking up on it

and spreading it. I actually didn't do much at all to help that. It was never something on my mind, the GoFundMe. It just happened. And I looked at it one day and I thought, that's strange. I have more donations than last time I checked. And it was pretty empowering to see that

or or more hopeful um but now now so i talked about uh the gofundme was originally for two specific surgeries and i lowballed the amount um i later revised, actually it took me a couple of times and a lot of consideration because I didn't want to feel like I was cheating the people that were being gracious to me, which I'm not trying to be, but yeah. Uh, finding out that things cost more than I thought, but you know, it's way better than it was before. And to find it, I mean, I'm pretty sure it's the first thing that comes up when you look up my name now, which is better than Fox News' video or Daily Wire article or whatever the big thing that would pop up otherwise is. But yeah, it's called Clementine's Transition Fund. It's on GoFundMe.

You can find the Transition GoFundMe at gofundme.com slash SRS for Clem. And that link will be in the description, or you can just search Clementmentines transition fund on your search engine of choice see you on the other side it could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com. Thanks for listening.

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